It's good to be back!
It was good to be back to World Cup Downhill racing at the first round of the UCI downhill series for 2024 in the iconic venue of Fort William.
With very un-Scottish weather the weekend shaped up to be an absolute classic.
J-Tech Suspension founder and all-round suspension guru, Jim was up at Fort Bill to make sure Intense Factory Racing's Öhlins suspension was running sweet.
The full team was in attendance and were looking forward to kicking off the 2024 season.
The dry weather meant that the track was getting pretty beaten up, with some corners getting blown out and the rocks in the top section getting even more tooth loosening than usual.
Suspension set up was going to be key, with a course of contrasts where you've got big hits up top and then flat out jumps on the motorway section, the suspension is working hard to cover all bases.
The team had a mix bag of luck over the course of the weekend with Joe and Lou qualifying for the Semis but both, unfortunately missing out on a finals spot by a hair's breadth. In Joe's case, by 0.9 of a second...
Joe had this to say:
"Overall a great first race for the team, amazing to see the foundations in place for us to go and win races across all categories. Personally, I felt like I was doing great, the setup was brilliant but a critical mistake with not taking tear offs for my goggles in my semi run meant I lost time due to poor visibility"
In the Juniors race we had Oscar Griffiths and Ryder Lawrence, both looking fast and ready to go.
Unfortunately Oscar had a crash right at the end of his run in qualifying so didn't make the cut for the finals, but was going good up to that point so is very much looking forward to round 2.
Ryder had the ride of the weekend with a 10th in qualifying and 11th in the Finals with a very consistent showing in his first ever World Cup race (!). He had this to say:
"I had a great week at my first world cup. I'm grateful for the awesome team I have to share this experience with. I am beyond happy with my results and I hope to keep progressing as the season goes."
All-in-all a super positive first race of the season for the team with everyone looking forward to Rd. 2 in Poland.